


imagine me, a lover

by ohliamylia



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-14 19:57:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11790354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohliamylia/pseuds/ohliamylia
Summary: Nothing looks amiss, except the wizard wearing the small silver monocle.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's weird that Murder on the Rockport Limited is the only arc where the relic doesn't get used, right? It's weird.

It works. They divide the Light of Creation into equal parts, hide the vessels, and wait. The Hunger never comes. They sit back and watch the world slowly destroy itself anyway.

 

“I never thought this is how I’d settle down,” Taako says one morning over breakfast, uncharacteristically penseive as he drowns his pancakes in boysenberry syrup.

 

(“ _ Hrrdymffnt?” “Magnus, if you don’t chew with your mouth closed, so help me, I will burn--”) _

 

“What, you didn’t think you’d retire on a spaceship, floatin’ over Home two-point-oh while you wait for the other shoe to drop?”

 

After he swallows, Magnus asks, “How’d you imagine it?”

 

Taako shrugs. “I guess I didn’t.”

 

They settle into tentative, uneasy patterns, trying not to jinx their luck, trying not to get too attached to this world, this hard-won peace. After a century on the run, the idea of putting down roots is as tempting as it is foreign.

 

“Barry?” Lup begins one sleepless night. Barry grabs his glasses from the nightstand - he knows she’s been awake, staring at the ceiling of their quarters, but he’d assumed she was meditating. He waits. He can always tell when she’s had an idea.

 

“What if we had a kid?”

 

Taken aback, Barry adjusts his glasses, like that will help him understand the question better. “Is this about what Taako said? About settling down?”

 

“Kind of. I don’t know. What if, babe?”

 

He turns on the bedside light but Lup extinguishes it with a flick of her hand. He sighs and sits up a little. “Jeez, Lup. I don’t know. That’s a big commitment. Not even for us - for this world. What if - what if this doesn’t work? What if we have to leave, and…” He trails off, too uncomfortable with the implications to finish.

 

“Yeah.” He can tell Lup hasn’t really been listening. Of course she’s thought all of it through already. Barry wants to kick himself. He was answering with his mind, not his heart.

 

“I mean, that’s not to say - you know I love you, Lup, and, and, I’d love to, of course I would.”

 

“They’d be so smart.”

 

“Huh?”

 

Lup rolls over to face him, head pillowed on her hand. The stars from their window reflect in her eyes. Barry will never stop marveling at her beauty. “If we had a kid, goofus,” she clarifies, reaching with her other hand to wiggle Barry’s glasses. “They’d be super smart, like their parents.”

 

Barry can’t help his smile. Lup returns it with a grin. “And beautiful, like their mother.”

 

“And a  _ major _ dorkarino like their dad.”

 

In quiet moments, they find happiness trading their hopes and dreams for this  _ what if _ child. Intelligent, kind, clever. A good sense of humor. Resilient. A killer wardrobe, Taako contributes, when he wises onto their game.  _ “ _ And a dope wizard, with these two fuckin’ Sorcerer Supremes as parents.”

 

Lucretia overhears the most recent addition to the list as she enters the kitchen, nearly dropping her empty mug. She makes a strange face, concern warring with alarm and little wistfulness. “Lup, you’re not--?”

 

“Hell no,” Taako hoots, and misses the mirror of Lucretia’s expression on his twin’s face. “We’re just doin’ a little improv. Imagining what their tyke would be like.  _ Yes, and _ .”

 

“You wanna add to the mix, Luc?”

 

“Oh, um.” Lucretia expression melts away to puzzlement. “They… like books?”

 

Lup and Barry share a look; Lup shrugs. “Makes sense, they’re gonna be a huge nerd.”

 

_ Annoying,  _ Merle contributes when pressed, and then  _ independent, I guess _ .  _ Uhh, focused? _ Davenport adds, distracted, from the helm of the ship. Magnus spends days, weeks thinking of his contribution. (“ _ You can have more than one, you know that, right?” _ ) Eventually, he sits Lup and Barry down with handwritten list; options have been added and crossed off, edited and amended.

 

“He’s brave and helpful and he’s a good kid and everyone loves him, and he loves dogs.”

 

There’s a pause, and then - “It took you  _ that long _ to--” “--wait, he?”

 

Magnus looked chagrined. “Sorry, right, they. Or, you know, whatever pronouns they prefer for whatever gender they prefer.”

 

“That’s okay, buddy,” Barry reassures. “You were, uh… you were just working with some strong ideas.”

 

“I’m down with he,” Lup adds. “I mean, I’m down with literally anything. We’ll see, babe, right?”

 

She smiles, and Barry’s grin is only a little strained. “Yeah, Lup. ‘Course.”

 

And then Lup - and then Lucretia - and then they never get the chance.

 

Barry searches, and he hunts, and he tries to keep himself sane with the memory of his perfect day with Lup but it’s all caught up in the knowledge that she’s  _ gone _ and when he thinks he’s going to lose it, he works on the list in his head.  _ Clever. Kind. Magical. Brave. Bookish.  _ The list feels so definitive, so real, that when he bitterly thinks  _ lonely _ he feels like he can’t redact it, can’t take it back. He tries not to think of their  _ what if _ child - of their son - when he’s angry, but he’s angry so often now as his search turns up nothing again and again and he uses that habit to tether him to reality. To remind himself of hope and love and  _ Lup _ when things seem darkest.

 

_ Smart. Resilient. Independent. Loved. _

 

He knows that Taako, Magnus, and Merle have been recruited to Lucretia’s - organization. And now that he’s in lich form again, he knows that he absolutely cannot risk getting too close to them. When the next Grand Relic turns up, it’s easy enough to summon the weather, lay a fog over Rockport - prevent the Reclaimer from being reclaimed immediately, buy some time to figure out a plan to - something. Lup was always better with off-the-dome ideas.

 

Leeman Kessler buys a train ticket out of Rockport. Invisible, Barry opens a dimension door into the caboose of the Rockport Limited. The valuables were loaded by an assistant; the Oculus would be there.

 

It is there, and so is the assistant.

 

Nothing looks amiss, except the wizard wearing the small silver monocle. There are no chimerical wonders made real, no fantasies turned corporeal. Barry sighs and casts Dominate Monster.

 

_ So what do you say we - heeeeey, woah there, _ he hears the voice whisper secondhand.  _ Hey, what are you doing in here, buddy? You wanna make all your fantasies come true? Gotta be honest, this guy’s not that imaginative. We can do better, you and me. _

 

“What did he want?”

 

_ A train adventure. I know, super lame. I’m just the genie, buddy, I don’t make the wishes. Trust me, I can do a lot more than that. _

 

Barry cards through the wizard’s recent memory: a fantasy of intrigue, suspicion, mystery, and murder.

 

_ See how easy it is? I can make anything you want real. _

 

“There’s nothing I want that you can give me.”

 

_ Like your dead girlfriend? _

 

Anger flares through him and Barry trembles with the effort of keeping himself grounded, contained. He tries to think of Lup and - he can’t, it only unhinges him further.

 

_ Magical. Brave. Bookish _ , he thinks fiercely. The future, not the past.  _ Loved.  _ Hope, not heartbreak.

 

_ I mean, _ says the relic.  _ I can do that too. _

 

The red clears from Barry’s vision and his stomach sinks. Someone - he? the wizard? - has cast Minor Illusion. Standing before him is the image of a small boy with his dorky glasses and Lup’s starlit eyes. He’s smartly dressed and clutching a  _ Caleb Cleveland, Kid Cop _ novel.

 

Barry hesitates, Dispel Magic at the tips of his fingers. The boy stands unmoving, unblinking. Barry hasn’t seen those eyes in years.

 

He hesitates a moment too long. Several things happen in near synchronicity. The Oculus flashes. The boy starts. A thunderwave of fury blasts through the train car, knocking the monocle to the floor. Barry, the wizard, and the boy are instantly transported outside the train, although they end up a little further down the platform than planned.

 

“What the--” the wizard starts to say, but comes up short as Barry’s spell hits him.

 

“Forget you ever put the monocle on,” Barry growls. “Forget it exists. You loaded the valuables and now you’re going to - do whatever you do.”

 

Behind him, a small voice calls, “Hello, sir?”

 

He doesn’t have an actual heart, but somehow he feels it lodge in his throat anyway. Did his invisibility wear off? Barry turns to regard the child, but the boy is watching the wizard walk away in confusion (and slight distate at the  _ JUICY  _ on the back of the robe). Barry grits his nonexistent teeth and casts Modify Memory again.

 

“Look, kid,” he says gruffly, and the boy’s eyes dart around wildly looking for the source of his voice - not out of alarm, but intense curiosity. “Um, you have to… you have to forget whatever you saw inside the train just now. You’re, um - did it give you a backstory, I don’t…”

 

“My name is Angus McDonald,” the boy says to the air, unerringly close to looking directly at Barry.

 

“That - where did - okay. Look, um, Angus. Forget what happened in the train. Forget what you saw. You’re just going to…”

 

“I’m taking the train to Neverwinter to see my grandfather!” Angus cuts in enthusiastically. His voice lowers conspiratorially. “But I’m also on the trail of a serial killer called the Rockport Slayer. I’m not being braggy, but I’m the world’s greatest detective!”

 

Barry puts his head in his noncorporeal hands. “Oh god it made you part of the train adventure.”

 

“Sir?”

 

“Angus… forget this conversation too.” Angus’ expression begins to melt away into puzzlement, and the heart that Barry doesn’t have breaks. “But remember this. You’re clever, and kind, and magical, and brave. You like reading books. And you’re so, so smart. And you’re  _ loved _ . Remember that, Angus. Stay safe. Make - make friends on the train, okay? Find Leeman Kessler and talk to him.”

 

Already forgotten, Angus begins to wander away into the station, opening his  _ Caleb Cleveland  _ book.

 

“I’m gonna - I’m gonna find you,” Barry swears to himself. “I’m gonna find Lup, and then we’re gonna come find you.”

 

He opens a dimension door back to his cave and his tank and his web of clues and back at the Rockport Station, the Rockport Slayer strikes again - for the first time.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to get my crazy theories out there before they get Jossed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little more.

i.

 

You almost expect Lucretia to use him against you, somehow, draw you out of hiding - but if she knows at all, you never see any indication. You’re not sure you could forgive her if she did (and forgiving her is something you’re already struggling with).

 

ii.

 

With surprising speed, the boys hand over their Stones of Farspeech. You can hear Angus through them, threefold, tinny and frantic. Your hand spasms and crushes them into dust, ending Angus’ pleas. You’d expected to hear Lucretia checking in. You were prepared for that. Your emotions roil and thunder roars overhead. “That was close, I’ve, I - I forgot about that,” you stammer in apology. “About your stones.”

 

iii.

 

“You gonna be okay, little man?” Lup asks, floating alongside Angus. “I know your wand snapped back there, and we’ve got a lot of butts to kick.”

 

You wonder if now is maybe a good time to bring it up. Things have been kind of non-stop.

 

“Oh, don’t worry about me, ma’am!” Angus assures her, optimistic even now. “I know plenty of wizardly magics that don’t require a wand! And I’m a brave boy.”

 

“Rock on. I bet you’re a dope wizard.”

 

“Mr. Taako has been teaching me. It helps that - and I’m not being braggy!  - I’m super smart.”

 

“And a major dorkarino,” Lup teases.

 

She freezes, and then Angus. They stare at each other and then turn to look at you.

 

“Um,” you start. “Let’s, um, let’s save the world first?”

 

You fight, and you do, you and Lup with your  _ what if _ child between you, and he's everything you dreamed of and more.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Are you ready?


End file.
